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U.S. History 1877-Present 11.10: Civil Rights for All 34 Views
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Description:
By the mid-20th century, it seems America finally decided to take that whole "and justice for all" thing sort of seriously.
Transcript
- 00:03
When the story of the civil rights movement is told most [Notebook titled civil rights movement]
- 00:07
tend to focus on the African-American struggle for equality. Maybe it's because
- 00:11
the list of wrongs done to black Americans is so long, or maybe that for [Many pages of a book turn]
- 00:17
so long they were the largest minority, or maybe it's that they fought so hard
- 00:21
and so visibly for their place at the American table. While all that's true [Footage of civil rights protesters]
Full Transcript
- 00:26
we've got to give shoutouts to the many other groups who fought tooth and nail
- 00:29
for their rights. In many ways black Americans paved the way for the civil [Protesters holding up signs]
- 00:34
rights battles to come and amplified ones that had been going on for a while.
- 00:38
The mid 20th century had no shortage of groups who were being discriminated
- 00:42
against. Disenfranchised groups are something we've just never been short on
- 00:47
because at any point in time we've always had some masters of [Suspicious looking man wearing a 'discrimination' shirt]
- 00:50
discrimination lurking in shady alleyways. Or if you happen to live in
- 00:54
the 21st century lurking behind ya know, shady keyboards... Well immigrants, women, Latinos, [Someone typing on a keyboard]
- 00:59
Asian-Americans, indigenous people, homosexuals, the list is super sad and
- 01:05
goes on far too long. Well the good news is that all this civil rights
- 01:09
legislation did cut down on some discrimination and inspired future
- 01:12
activism. So even though it was Afro-centric it still had benefits for all, [Black Panthers raising their fists]
- 01:17
and like Santa Claus throwing candy from a parade float the benefits rain down on
- 01:21
everyone. Take the Voting Rights Act for example, sure it was clearly designed to
- 01:27
restore voting rights to African-Americans in the south however,
- 01:30
as a side benefit it also made similar vote nullifying shenanigans against
- 01:35
Asian American and Latinos illegal. And like the Empire, women were also striking
- 01:41
back. After the successes of feminism in the 1920s women had lost ground during [Woman hits a man with a walking stick]
- 01:46
the conservative backlash from 1930 to 1960. They'd gone from freewheeling flappers to [Woman dancing]
- 01:52
desperate housewives and some weren't feeling too chipper about it. However in [Angry woman in a supermarket hits another man]
- 01:56
the 1960s women joined in the spirit of social progress, well this new second
- 02:01
wave of feminism was called uncreatively second wave feminism. Their struggle [Photo of feminist protesters]
- 02:06
was for equal footing with men in the workplace and in the home. As if that
- 02:11
wasn't hard enough to achieve they also fought for protections against
- 02:15
domestic abuse and marital rape as well as the ability to divorce. The days of
- 02:21
father knows best were numbered. Mexican Americans or Chicanos were also fighting [Old man is tipped out his chair]
- 02:26
for their rights. Charismatic leaders like Cesar Chavez fought for better
- 02:30
working conditions and equal treatment for Chicano farmworkers, meanwhile other
- 02:34
leaders and groups fought for land voting it quality and better schools. [Mix of protest groups holding up signs]
- 02:39
The civil rights era also saw the snipping of racist immigration policies. The 1965
- 02:45
Immigration Act got rid of racially motivated immigration quotas that put a
- 02:49
cap on the number of immigrants allowed into the country based on country of
- 02:53
origin. And in case anybody missed it country of origin is a not-so-subtle way
- 02:58
of saying race. Well northern and western European Christians had no quota [Map showing immigration to the U.S. from Britain]
- 03:02
surprise surprise while Africans, Asians and Latinos had strict quotas. As
- 03:07
a result of lifting these bans America is becoming more and more diverse by the [Footage of a busy street]
- 03:10
year. Among the many benefits, how exciting our dinner options have become.
- 03:14
Indonesian burritos anyone? Yeah, sign us up! [Different types of food laid out on a table]
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